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Saving the Earth and Ourselves

A more realistic step is the afforestation programme. At least some people are planting a thousand trees for all the millions being cut down. So we pass laws. Laws are futile attempts to control anything. If the people are not motivated enough to put an end to all the wrongs, then no amount of laws can put an end toil

by Nahtixl Kanial
THE much .waited United Nation* Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) Popu larty known ■» the Earth Su mmtt began at Rio de Janeiro on June 3rd. The World En vtronment Day coincided with the summit and was held on Friday. June 5th. The theme thia year ta .uttably ONE EARTH-CARE AND SHARE. In the keynote address. UN Secretary General, Boutros Boutros Ghali said. Time to find new ways to use the Earth.' The key word is use not abuse'. It Is easier said than done Abusing nature is one of our bad habits that die bard
Twenty year. since the world community first met tn Stockholm on June 5th. 1972 under the watchful banner 'ONLY ONE EARTH' this planet has suffered great degradations and undergone terrible changes. Man has stripped the planet bare. Now environmentalists believe we have only 10 years left! No. not 10 years until we all die but 10 years for us to get a hold of ourselves. Just 10 years to recover from this drunken stupor and step on the brakes Yes. there is still hope...
Pictures sent lo earth from satellites show an almost peaceful and pristine planet. Almost, because from that high up there is much that cannot be seen: the hole tn the ozone layer, global warming, fouled rivers, dirty urban air. exhaust emitting vehicles, spreading deserts, depleted rainforests and mines, and ail five or six million of us are also Invisible from way up there. What can be deducted are the effects of all these on the planet. Jacques-Yves Cousteau, now 81 years old and a pioneer in the field of environmentalism, was the first to realize how fragile nature is. He once said, "Nature is cruel. nature is violent. nature does not know what justice is*, yet nature is beautiful. Our earth system consists of a complex and difficult web of life — often violent In an attempt to subdue the violence. man has invented various means to kill diseases, and germs, insects and spiders, cleared forests, drained swamps, dammed rivers, mined mountains and caves, killed off animals along with countless people who wore beUcz integrated with nature than all of us.
We ah know exactly what we have done to destroy the environment the list is endless and we have published enough articles to make us all environmentally aware. Now we need to take steps to learn what we can do to save the planet. This list is just as long: we can plant trees, stop abus-
ing natural resources, tune our cars, use less electricity and waiter. etc., etc., etc. The point is to take note of what has been done and whal effects they are to have. Our Intent now is to raise questions about what kind of envlronmentalisis we have become, and to consider what else we need to know to fight more effectively against the despoliation of our
More than a hundred world leaders came together to at tend the 12-day conference. Unabated growth and devel opment have led to unimaginable destruction. Now this once-secondary topic has taken up the primary role In world politics. Reuter reparts that "each day the world lead ere spend talking at the summit 16.500 hectares (40.600 acres) of arable land will turn into dust." Land abuse is a re
suit 'primarily of unavoidable human faults." claims Till Durnhoffer of the United Nutions Environment Programme (UNEP). The theme for the summit is appropriate because the greed and selfishness have got to stop. Town planners go on razing forests to the ground and we read about Pakistani troops burning down forests to smoke out bandits on Environment Day ! What do they care about the temperature rising and polar caps melting? The governor of the state of Amazonas In Brazil claims 'Environmentalism Is a plot to keep the Amazon poor." Then President Bush refuses to sign the biodiversity treaty What they forget Is that a depicted rain-forest in Brazil can effect the Alps and even Bangladesh and so on so forth.
In the weeks of the summit everybody went into a frenzy of environmentalism. Vigorous activities marked the occasion. First and foremost came the seminars and processions. Where do these fit into saving the planet? They all carry banners proclaiming their willingness to help do the right thing but what good does a march do? A more realistic step is the afforestation programme. At least some people
are planting a thousand trees for all the million* being cut down. So we pass laws Law* are futtl* attempts to control anything. If the people are not motivated enough to put an end to all the wrongs, then no amount of laws can put an end to it. Every complex system has an easy exit and these laws are the easiest to evade Everyday we hear plaintive cries about the unbearable heat wave that Is sweeping across the nation, but do we stop to consider why this is happening? Why doesn't it rain? The answer Is simple: The weather has gone haywire Well It Is time to do something about It. What can we possibly do to save the planet?
Well, we can start by plant Ing trees. Everytime a tree I* cut down, say the Mayans, u star falls from the sky. At the rate we are going, tn ten years
time the sky will be void of stars. The earth had an approximate of 47% rain forests but tn a mere decade nearly 7% of the trees have been cut down. When the trees are felled and we are nol cutting down our carbon di oxide production at the same rate then there is more of this poisonous gas in the atmosphere and not enough trees to make oxygen and so the atmosphere gets warmer and so the greenhouse effect and so global warming and so polar caps melting and so floods and droughts and so on so forth. Everything is related. No matter how we try to be islands it is not possible: we are one big family and any death in the family can and will affect each and everyone of us either directly or Indirectly.
Chemicals have posed as a great threat to the environment. Mure than 80% of the creatures on earth are Insects or spiders. For every pound of us there are 300 pounds of them. An awful thought but that Is the truth. This every awful thought led man to try and kill them. Insects are of course pests. They not only crawl Into our food, skitter across floors at night and disrupt picnics, but they also de-
stroy crop* and kill million* annually with the disease* they carry But try as we might, we cannot control them. We are losing the "bug war because biology Is on the other side Hope* of ridding ua of all forms of deadly Insect* came to surface at the end of World War II. unleashing a half-century of all-out chemical warfare against the bugs. And now our rivers, lakes, oceans, air and soil are laced with these deadly chemicals and »o are
According to the World Health Organisatlon(WHO) pesticide* are responsible for more death* tn the developing countries than all the major disease*. It is even more ironic to find that some of the more widely used agro-chemicals are derived from substance* which originated in Nazi laboratories during the World War. where these were made to kill peo pie. not pest*. Some of these are so lethal that a single drop In the eye can mean death Unlike human* who take for ever to adapt, pests have an amazing ability to adapt to clr cuinstances If we zap them long enough with all these stuff, then they become Im mune to the poison. Eventually this resistance built-up makes them even stronger. Thirty years ago Rachel Carson wrote "Silent Spring"—the sad tale of DDTs effect on the eco-sys tem Because pesticides poison the entire system, we end up paving the path for our own destruction each time we try to Introduce a stronger means of destroying pests. Nature Is much too strong for us to combat. The tables seem to turn on us each time making us, the attackers. Into the vic tims. Like pesticides plastics are leaving behind trace* of carcinogens all over the place A new craze is to recycle everything. However in our country this process Is yet to be introduced. As a matter of fact recycled drawing paper costs more than non recycled paper Plastic Is the most difficult lo get rid of so it is recycled from old Junk into new: old bottles and caps into dolls. Plastics are not bto-degradable and take forever to disintegrate, even when It does It leaves behind poisonous residues and can cause cancer.
The reason wc need to-"care and share" Is because we are hoping that the future generations won't come out of this ordeal looking like E.T with 4 hands and 6 legs !!?
Perhaps environmentalists are fanatical and morbid about their cause. Yet. if you took time out to notice the beauty and wisdom of nature, then you too will get fanatical. The fact Is. saving the planet means saving ourselves.